Heading into Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, conventional wisdom held that the Los Angeles Dodgers needed to be the team that scored first. After all, the Milwaukee Brewers not only had home-field advantage but a rest Josh Hader looming.
Christian Yelich gave the Brewers a 1-0 lead with his home run in the bottom of the first inning, sending Miller Park into a frenzy. But the Dodgers quickly answered back, with Manny Machado’s bunt single setting up Cody Bellinger’s go-ahead two-run home run.
Walker Buehler upheld the 2-1 lead but was in danger of losing it when Lorenzo Cain doubled with two outs in the fifth inning. In came Julio Urias, who unbeknownst until after the game, was pitching one day after his grandmother passed away.
Urias quickly got ahead 0-2 on Yelich, but left a third pitch out over the plate. The likely NL MVP put a charge into it, which Chris Taylor tracked down in left-center field for a sliding catch.
“That was the catch of the year,” marveled Bellinger, who was named NLCS MVP. “I don’t know what would happen if he doesn’t make that catch. It would have been a tie game, who knows? That was an unbelievable catch. And it was really cool to see it firsthand, right there.”
Taylor is usually mild-mannered when out on the field but the moment was big enough that he couldn’t keep in a show of emotion.
He was then largely at a loss for words after the Dodgers’ win that propelled them to the World Series a second straight year. Taylor said his initial thought was Bellinger would make the catch from center field.
The play epitomized what the Dodgers have built their organization on — depth and versatility. Taylor, a natural shortstop, made the biggest catch of the season for the Dodgers thus far.
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